"It's pretty amazing. They actually learn their lines through tape recording. They'll tape-record the lines, play them back and that's how they learned their lines," Shane said. "There's no one pulling them on and off stage, it's the other actors giving them sound cues ... It's really about them learning to trust each other."

Together they wrote a play, called Hiding Eyes, a mafia thriller. After months of rehearsal, a transformation started to take place.

Ernest no longer stuttered; Bert started remembering more things; And Ernie broke his silence.

"When I started, I couldn't speak one word for 15 minutes. It was hard sweat, but now I'm speaking," Alvarez said.

And on opening night at the Edgemar Theater in Santa Monica, a sold-out crowd showed up. .